I don't need to write too much here about my interests/ hobbies/ desires; they should be apparent after a couple of minutes spent browsing through my ramblings, but I would certainly welcome your feedback so please feel free to comment.

Thursday, 11 June 2009

...North.

A while ago I wrote about the time when Jon Snow came to speak to the students at UCLan, and noted how he had mentioned about the tendency for the people of London, especially in the media industry, to have an extremely 'London-centric' mindset. This idea has been brought to my attention once again with the most recent public interest story absorbing most of the news headlines at the moment about the tube workers going on strike and Londoners having to cycle/walk/row to work - the poor dears.

Now, I completely agree that we as a nation should support our capital city and should show an interest in what's going on there, but there comes a point when I wonder if any other part of the country - especially the north - matter to the country in the slightest? It seems as though the only time us poor stupid northerners receive any coverage in the press is when there's a bomb scare in Manchester or Swine Flu in Ripon.

Northern folk are constantly being portrayed as commoners who are disinterested in anything of cultural value and ignorant about matters involving race and homosexuality (something which can be true in some cases but is not an attitude necessarily confined to the north).

I find the general snobbery of many southerners distinctly narrow-minded and I can't help but feel indignant about the misconceptions generally held by most.

PS. A lot of my good friends are from the south - this is not aimed at them, I love them all dearly!

I suppose because London is really big, it is more news-worthy than a transport strike in Burnley for example. That said, they do call London "The City", which makes you wonder what they consider Manchester and Liverpool to be.

I have met a few Northerners over the years, and the majority of them seemed jolly nice.